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Revolution's SIMRAD 100 report

11 Sep 2006

Looking at it from a no extras perspective, this was by far the worst race. Race 2 was light out of the start but at least it was a reach.

On Revolution we opted for the #2 and wanted to protect the left. We were keen on the pin and took it off Grunta and Communique, forcing Grant over but he played fair. We soon worked out the Rangi shore was paying off, and then protected the right to hang on for the beat around the the Noises. Had a good beat to Waiheke passing Azure and then cut the corner at Shag to pass 3 boats (did I say it was pretty close racing). The #2 had left us a bit undercooked but as our opposition were all on blades we didn?t change up until after Shag rock. We kept trying to stay right on the others which worked on the Hanse and 1020s but Azure and Stratocaster drifted up and around us all. At this stage it was wet and crap but we were still a bit surprised at how quickly people were pulling out. The breeze slowly filled in and we worked hard and got away fairly well ? another rich getting richer moment. Waka Huia had gone past us in the 5kn breeze, but we passed her again prior to Flat Rock. Had a couple of tense moments when a rain squall obscured Flat Rock light but we checked on the GPS and there were a few miles to go so a compass course prevailed. The leg to Motuora was fortunately enough of a reach to keep the genoa full with Waka Huia passing us around the island. It was a very soft reach to Tiri. I actually went and had a snooze. Then poled out in Tiri, tied the preventer on the boom and aimed downwind. It took an age to get out of the Tiri Passage, with the genoa hardly filling. Share Delight and Cool Change went through to windward, and Atom Ant must have been right in on the mainland shore, although at the time I thought it was a multi as they were going so quick relative to us. At this stage my only consolation was it would be hurting the big Elliots worse! We had assumed Expressway was somewhere in behind but it turns out they had retired at Gannet. We went onto a watch system while we were in slow drift mode and it was nice getting down below. Just before Rangi light the breeze shifted and we 2 sailed with an increasing breeze to the finish spotting the new harbour marks as we went.

A quick rum on the way to the marina, a 2 second pack up and home for an hours sleep before kid duties had me up again at 7. What made it worse was the neighbours had an all night party. In years gone by I would probably have gone and joined them??.

Interestingly, our position on the water as a no extras boat hasn?t been too far from where we would hope to be as an extras boat. We put a bit of effort in for this series, both on the boat and as a crew, and worked hard at the starts and tactically. The runs in breeze were all good for us, as we weren?t broaching, and because we were changing up to the #1, it was minimising our pain.

With the bigger fleets I?m glad the start line will be the new marker next year?.. There is too much gain at the start for the more aggressive tactically, and more risk of a pile up at present.

I?m surprised at the low numbers of boats in the no extras division but the ones that entered were active racers. Congrats to long haul Div 2, by far the most competitive of the short haul and long haul fleets. Also congrats to HL for their continuing bench mark result in the short haul.